


it's always colder on your own

by paopuleaf



Series: and they were roommates (oh my god they were roommates) [2]
Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, Roommates, benrey also has long hair ! this is relevant, nonbinary benrey. they/themrey, this can no longer be read as super platonic ! they r gay harold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:54:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24121639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paopuleaf/pseuds/paopuleaf
Summary: His hands catch on yet another tangle, and Benrey suppresses a wince, their face twisting slightly. “Damn. When’s the last time you brushed your hair? Or used conditioner? Or shampoo, at that.”In which Benrey really,reallyneeds to deal with the mess that is their hair, and Gordon's down to help out.
Relationships: Benrey & Joshua Freeman, Benrey/Gordon Freeman, Gordon Freeman & Joshua Freeman
Series: and they were roommates (oh my god they were roommates) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1739020
Comments: 10
Kudos: 434





	it's always colder on your own

Nariko trills as she winds around Gordon’s legs, tripping him as he stumbles and faceplants into the couch next to Benrey. “Aw, somebody’s clumsy,” Benrey says, not looking away from their game as Gordon shifts and glares at them. 

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Your cat’s a little bastard, just like you.” Gordon draws his legs up and leans to the side to watch the switch’s screen, Benrey shifting slightly to give him a better look. 

“You’re kinda mean, dude,” they mumble, snorting when Gordon elbows them in the side. “Like I said. Mean.”

“Look who’s talking.”

Benrey mocks him with another mumble before tensing, attention once again locked onto the Switch. Gordon peers over. “Pokemon?”

“Nah, bro, Digimon,” they deadpan. Gordon watches as they catch an Arcanine and name it Sunkist, adding it to their team. “Can’t believe you didn’t already have a save on this. Cringe Gordon on the fail switch, doesn’t even play Pokemon Shield.”

“Shut it, man, I’ve been playing Breath of the Wild. ‘S not like I’ve had much time to play anyways, with all the weird bullshit going on.” Gordon sighs, relaxing a little bit before Nariko decides to jump up onto his legs. She kneads at the fabric of his sweatpants and settles down, purring when he lifts his arm and scratches her head. “Hey, least I got a cat out of it.”

“So it’s only your cat when she isn’t being a bastard, huh?” 

“I couldn’t have given her the fucking bastard genes-”

“What, Gordon ‘don’t fuck with the science team’ Feetman doesn’t have the bastard genes? Finding that to be a little bullshit, dude.”

“Stop calling me Feetman-”

“Feetman-”

“God you’re insufferable-”

“You’re mean, all the time-”

“Are those the only insults you know? Feetman and mean?”

“They’re pretty epic insults.”

“Eh.”

They both pause, before Gordon starts laughing, one hand covering his mouth to try and suppress it. Benrey grins as he sinks deeper into the couch, leaning to the side until most of their weight is on him. Nariko hops off the couch as Gordon groans, still laughing even as he’s pushed into the cushions. “I’m gonna  _ die,  _ get off-”

“Sorry, can’t hear you, too comfy.”

“I hate you. Awful. Get out of my house.”

Gordon ends up leaning half-against the back of the couch with Benrey in his lap, running his fingers through the mess of helmet hair that they have as they keep playing their game. His hands catch on yet another tangle, and Benrey suppresses a wince, their face twisting slightly. “Damn. When’s the last time you brushed your hair? Or used conditioner? Or shampoo, at that.” 

“I- uh, ‘m still not used to having to brush my hair. Being real and flesh is kinda fucked,” they respond, shrugging as much as they can. “Sometimes I forget to eat. Nariko’s helpin’ me with that, though, ‘cause feeding her keeps me on schedule.”

“Jeez, dude, do you need to borrow my stuff? I wouldn’t mind brushing your hair sometime if it gets these fucking tangles out of it.” Gordon hums, carefully removing his fingers from their hair and tugging at his own. Benrey glances up at him, eyes widening as they pause the game.

They glance away for a second, before saving the game and setting the switch on the coffee table. “Can I, uh, take you up on that? Like, now? It’s kinda shitty n’ gross right now.”

“Not like I’m doing much else,” Gordon says. Benrey sits up, and he stands, stretching. “I’ll grab the…” He trails off, staring off into space before he jolts. “Right! Dry conditioner, hairbrush. Got it. Be right back.”

Benrey is fidgeting with their hoodie strings when he walks back into the living room, holding the stuff with a scrunchie on his wrist. “Grabbed you a scrunchie since your hair seems too thick for normal hair ties. You still up for this?”   
  


“Yeah.” Benrey spins and faces the wall, shoulders tense. 

“Just- shit, just let me know if it hurts too much, ‘kay?” Gordon bites his lip as he squeezes some conditioner into his hand and begins to run his fingers through their hair again, applying the conditioner carefully. They flinch when Gordon hits a particularly nasty tangle, and he hums. “Wanna talk about pokemon?”

“Huh?”

“It’s gonna be a little painful, so I figured that talking would probably be a pretty good distraction. Don’t gotta if you don’t wanna, dude. But I’m down to listen.”

“...Sweet. So, uh, right now ’m just playing Shield, and-” 

The rambling is nice, and Gordon gets through the rest of the conditioner without much fuss, being as careful as possible. He waits until Benrey pauses to pick up the hairbrush. “Just a little warning, I’m gonna be brushing, so. If it hurts like hell, you know why.”

“‘Kay.”

At some point, Benrey transitions from rambling about pokemon to rambling about Heavenly Sword, making small gestures with their hands as they do. Gordon smiles a bit as he works his way through the hair, until it’s untangled almost completely; it’s still fluffy and messy, but there’s no more big knots to catch on things. He keeps running his fingers through their hair until Benrey stops talking, glancing back at him.

“You done?”

“Oh- yeah, almost.” Gordon ducks his head to hide his face, caught in the act. Embarrassing. “Just lemme…” He separates the hair into three parts and quickly braids it, tying it off at the end with the scrunchie. “‘There we go. Braid for the bastard.”

Benrey tosses back their phone, and Gordon fumbles before catching it. He snaps a picture and hands it back to them. 

“... huh. Nice. Thanks, Gordon.”

“Did you just-”

“I didn’t say anything, Feetman.”

Gordon huffs a small laugh, leaning forward and resting his head on their back. “You’re welcome, Benrey. Anytime.”

-

Joshua sits in front of Benrey, a case between them. They… really don’t know what to do. This is a child? Gordon’s kid? The one they said looked a bit shit. “Uh…”  _ Why did Gordon have to go to the store? This really is somethin’ else, huh. _

“Can I play with your hair?”

“What.”

The kid opens the case, revealing entirely too many hair accessories, and Benrey’s eyes widen. “Uh, I mean, sure? I guess? I dunno how fun it’ll be, but. Yeah.” Joshua cheers, shuffling until he’s behind them with the case in his lap. 

Benrey can’t see what he’s clipping in, but there’s a lot, and it’s heavy, so they figure it must be pretty wild. They close their eyes and doze off, before the sound of the door opening jolts them awake again. “Joshie, Benrey, I’m ho-” 

“Look, dad! They look really cool, right?”

Gordon is muffling snickers, and Benrey ducks their head, avoiding both of their gazes. “They look very cool, buddy, you did an awesome job. Can I take a picture?”

“Yeah! I wanna keep it!”

“‘Course.”

Joshua carefully unclips everything, and Benrey retreats to their room soon after, collapsing onto the bed with a groan. That was not an epic gamer moment. “Can’t believe Feetman saw me like that. At least Joshua was happy with it.” Their mind buffers when they process the last sentence they said, before they roll over and stare at the ceiling.  _ I care about this kid. And Gordon. That’s… somethin’. _

A knock. Benrey manages to say something that probably sounded like “come in”, and Gordon opens the door, his face looking way too smug. “Joshua’s in bed, so I figured you could get a good look at your cool hair.”

“Don’t drag this out, bro. Just show me.”

Gordon holds out his phone, and Benrey stares at the picture, expression carefully blank. It doesn’t look… completely awful, which is a win. There’s a mess of rainbow ribbons mixed with star hair-clips, and there’s even a little bit of hair chalk in there; they reach up and brush at their hair unconsciously, morbidly curious if there’s still some pink leftover.

“Huh. Do you think I looked nice?”

“Wh-” Gordon blinks, before glancing down at the picture. “I think Joshie did a pretty good job.”

“Yeah, your fail kid’s pretty cool.”

“Don’t call my kid fail, dicknips-”

“Aw, cringe dad with the fail kid-”

“Shut  _ up _ oh my god-”

Benrey snorts, flopping back down onto the bed and closing their eyes. “Sorry bro, it’s sleepy time.” The weight doesn’t lift off their bed, so they open one eye, only to see Gordon staring off into the void on the edge of the bed. “You good?”

“Huh- yeah, yeah, I’m, uh. I’m good.” Gordon twists his hands in his lap before reaching up to tug at his ponytail. “Sorry, I’m just- damn. It’s so weird, having you n’ Joshua just… hanging out. Surreal. I don’t- I can’t-” He starts to tug harder, and  _ that looks painful _ , so Benrey leans forward and tugs his hands away. “Huh?”

“Joshua doesn’t have copyright on my hair. You can, uh, mess with it. If you want.”

Gordon looks at them for a moment, before smiling softly. “Thanks- thanks, dude. I appreciate it.” They fall into a comfortable silence, Benrey spinning the blankets under their finger as Gordon begins making tiny braids in their hair. 

"...'m sorry about the whole. Big bad thing." 

"Huh?" 

"I went all big, tried to kill you all, that stuff." Benrey's completely still as they talk, and Gordon almost reaches out to check if they're still breathing. "I, uh. Didn't know that afterwards... all this would happen, y'know? Pretty fuckin' weird. So yeah. Sorry." 

"I- It wasn't just a game for me, at that point, but I'm not the one who had to live-live through that shit," Gordon says, eyebrows furrowed. "It was pretty fucked, seeing my 'arm' get cut off n' stuff, probably gonna have some nightmares about it, and it was pretty shitty of you, but I get it. 'S... not okay, but it's okay, dude." 

Benrey snorts. "That doesn't make sense." 

"You know what I mean, c'mon-" 

"Mm, yeah, I do." They finally move again, turning slightly to look at Gordon. Their eyes meet, and then Benrey’s looking away again, shoulders relaxed. “Kid’s already in bed, right?”

Gordon nods unconsciously, glancing to the door. “Yeah. Joshua’s good, he’ll be in bed unless he needs me. Thanks for watching him earlier.”

“He doesn’t look as shit up close,” Benrey says in lieu of a proper response, and Gordon laughs. “Is there still some, uh… pink chalk or whatever in my hair?”

“Nah.”

“Damn.”

Eventually, Gordon stops making braids and starts running his fingers through it, and then the movement stops completely. Benrey glances back, only to see him dozing off, his eyes closed as he rests his hands right below the end of their hair. “Huh.” They shift carefully, lying Gordon down on the bed before hesitating and lying down next to him. “Night, Gordon.”

They close their eyes and drift off. 

**Author's Note:**

> [sonic voice] these bitches gay ! good for them ! good for them.
> 
> this fic series now has some supplementary doodles! you can find em via this [carrd](https://paopuleaf.carrd.co/)!
> 
> you can find me as always on my twitter [@[mxcatboy](https://www.twitter.com/mxcatboy)] or on my tumblr [@[rylron](https://rylron.tumblr.com)] ! alternatively, you can yell at me in the hlvrai discord server [here](https://discord.gg/JxwXbNu)


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